Kvadrat ReThink: designers reflect on the potential of textiles

Posted on June 11, 2024 by angelo

Kvadrat ReThink: designers reflect on the potential of textiles

Kvadrat ReThink marks the sixth exploration of design and textiles by the Danish textile authority in collaboration with international creatives. Unveiled at 3 Days of Design 2024, ReThink is a creative exploration of sustainable approaches, curated by Effrey Bernett, Anniina Koivu, Johanna Agerman Ross, Jane Withers and Njusja de Gier and featuring the work of 12 designers, emerging and established.

Kvadrat ReThink at the 3 days of design 2024

Designers were invited to explore the limits of materials through innovative design approaches, and were given carte blanche on their preferred medium, from recycled textiles, renewable or natural materials or circular approaches. The group explored Kvadrat’s extensive materials portfolio, while also looking to their own communities for further material and manufacturing inspiration.

Kvadrat ReThink Projects — Augmented Curtain – Christophe Guberan and Camille Blin

Designers involved include ECAL’s Patricia Urquiola, Fernando Laposse, Buro Belén, Christophe Guberan and Camille Blin, among others, with a roster of creatives spanning from Iceland to Venezuela. Through various approaches, designers immersed themselves in their own practice while exploring the potential of circularity and collaborating with local realities to give voice to their communities.

Throughout the 12 projects, the designers explored experimental approaches to using textiles for practical domestic purposes, playful concepts and much more. Guberan and Blin’s augmented curtain, for example, “develops the potential of a curtain as an insulating material in living spaces”, through the use of 3D weaving technology resulting in a curtain capable of reducing heat loss in winter and moderate temperature gain in summer. . To do this, the duo used Kvadrat’s Reflect, made from recycled PET, and created lightweight curtains with small tubes that trap air, forming an insulating barrier between the window and the room.

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

Octopods – Patricia Urquiola

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

A decidedly different direction was chosen by Urquiola, who used his Sport textile for Kvadrat (the world’s first recycled polyester upholstery textile, woven from discarded plastic collected from the ocean) to create a sculpture of giant octopus. The fun object “is intended to convey a serious message about waste repurposing and environmental sustainability.”

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

The Good Shepherd – Fernando Laposse

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

Also on the playful end of the spectrum is Laposse’s Le Bon Berger, a rocking bench inspired by the practice of sheep herding on horseback in Mexico. Using Kvadrat’s wool-based textiles (a symbolic choice, the designer explains, “because the company’s wool production depends on maintaining meadows for grazing”), Laposse’s horse-shaped piece features a saddle in Vidar 4 of Kvadrat sitting on a blanket in Recheck. . At the same time, he chose sisal for the body, a recurring material in the designer’s work, as it is derived from the agave he grows as part of his ongoing land and community regeneration project in Mexico.

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

Asignature: Patineta – Fragmentary

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

Venezuelan-born María-Elena Pombo of Fragmentario involved a Venezuelan children’s home to create a series of ok skateboards made from Kvadrat Really’s (the company’s versatile boards made from end-of-life textiles) . “By creating the skateboards, the children applied a range of new skills and learned about sustainability from a global and local perspective,” reads a note accompanying the project. “Skateboards will be used not only for leisure but also for transportation within their region. As a means of transportation that does not rely on oil, skateboarding symbolizes the abandonment of “extractivism.”

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

Bana – Jenny Chou (Atlas)

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

A Tibetan yak tent, made from strips of Kvadrat’s Molly 2 wool upholstery textile, is the project proposed by Jenny Chou, co-founder of Atlas Design Studio. Originally made from yak yarn and now a dying tradition, for Chou, “the nomads’ tents illustrate the fundamental principles of reuse and regeneration.” Working with the Tibetan community for the project became an exploration of how traditional practices and customs can help develop sustainable design ideas.

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

Kīpuka from New York studio Leong Leong refers to the Hawaiian concept of an “oasis” or “clearing” of the same name. Inspiring the design and architecture duo for its resistance to surrounding environmental transformations, the concept resulted in a “system of adaptable objects that transforms living spaces into sanctuaries of rest, play and reflection”.

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

“Participants responded with passion and ingenuity, drawing on diverse cultural and interdisciplinary backgrounds,” says Njusja de Gier, senior vice president of marketing and digital at Kvadrat. “ReThink captures many different approaches to sustainability through art, experiential education, transparency, 3D technology, assemblage, structure and pure craftsmanship in which the creative process evolves through the hand, heart and mind.”

Kvadrat ReThink is visible during 3 days of conceptionJune 12-14, 2024

Kvadrat showroom
Klubiensvej 22
2150 North Havre
Copenhagen

kvadrat.dk

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

Fiber walls – Buro Belén

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

Irreversible scale – Rikako Nagashima

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)

Kvadrat ReThink Projects

(Image credit: Casper Sejersen)